After watching some Andre Drummond highlights, I am currently in favor of making Hasheem Thabeet our starting center for the entire season and finding a new home for both Scola and Martin. There is no way the NBA can ever accuse the rockets of tanking especially after what Stern just did to them.
none of our bigs has any chance to be a starting center on any other team. that's the reality KM knows and everyone in the world knows. this year, i will just watch games w/o any expection. only expection IS for DM to get more higher draft picks.
Please dear baby Jesus, Alah, Buddah, and Jewish God, PLEASE let's us tank just enough to land Andre Drumm
The Rockets will get that high pick without "tanking". How many of the other lottery teams have improved?
Haven't you heard of all the praise from Kevin McHale? It'll be Jordan Hill. (Unless that quote about starting not being important means he's thinking of starting Thabeet but giving most of the minutes to Hill.)
Here are my thoughts on the situation: 1. The hold-up on the Dalembert front is over whether he'd take a short term deal with Houston (1 year... maybe 1 year at $8 or 9 million (or whatever cap room the Rockets manage to clear up up) with a partially guaranteed 2nd year? Would be a little better than Kwame Brown's $7 million, 1 year deal). As Bima pointed out, the Rockets are due to have something like $22 million in cap room, I think they like Dalembert (has flaws, but a really really good rebounder and a fine shot blocker), but would not kill the cap room for him. Sammy D, on the other hand, is probably looking around to see if there's something better and longer term out there. 2. Alternatively, perhaps there is trade out there to land Houston a center without hurting their 2012 cap room? Chris Kaman and his expiring contract is an obvious possiblity, but even guys with longer deals (Okafor) can be acquired if the other deal takes back a longer deal (Scola or Martin), too. 3. If no moves are made, I expect Scola and Patterson to have the most of the 4/5 minutes. They are undersized for the 5, but are better than other possibilities based on prior performance. Let's hope Pat's ankle doesn't blow up. 4. Interesting to hear McHale praise Jordan Hill. Hill was fine in terms of traditional stats last year (points, rebounds, blks) and has somewhat decent size (a bit skinny) and good athletic abilities but had horrible defensive awareness. He'd be out of place on rotations and give up dunks. As a result, he had a horrendous -12 pts/100 possession on/off court +/- (the team played 12 points worse per 100 possessions with Hill on the floor). This was true especially during the middle of the season when he was going through "family issues." I hope that Hill's focus is better now with his problems behind him. He doesn't seem to lack the physical abilities. 5. I would like to thank DaDakota for making Thabeet his latest crush. Hopefully, this means he won't jinx any of the other more hopeful young players on the team.
I think we have to get a center. Hoping for the number one pick in the draft is too risky because won't get it. We won't be a bad enough team to get a top 3 pick. So, Les wants us to make the playoffs then we need a C. Dalembert is probably my first choice with Kaman as #2. I also like Chris Andersen from Denver.
If it's Hill then we need to revisit all of those past threads that insist the reason he's failed so far is due to him being a PF and NOT a center. It just tells me that (as usual) the Rockets had no plan B. They put all their chips on getting Gasol and when that failed, they were stuck. For the Rockets it's the same song, different year.
But we still hold the amnesty card up our sleeve. If we need the cap room, we can axe Dalembert to free it up. We need someone at the position. Unless one of the camp invitees goes bonkers and becomes the next Brad Miller (start of his career), we've got to go ahead and grab him. Kaman is a rotting corpse at this point. Only other card I'd try to play is prying Cousins from Sac, at a high cost.
Probably Hill but I'm worried since he was not even that efficient against PFs, how in the world is he going to hold down the big centers ?? I hope Dalembert comes down to earth and accept a deal of around 6-7 million. That's still money that most people will never see + he has the perfect situation since to me he would automatically start and has a chance of staying as a back-up for years to come if he gets his act right..
Hm, if I recall correctly, I remember reading (was it from you?) that Hill actually has decent, if not good one-on-one post defense and that his team/help defense is what's lacking. Do you think the staff worked on that with him or are we going to get more of the same this year? Those stats are quite worriesome.
We can't amnesty someone who wasn't on the Rocket roster before the lockout...ie no FAs or trade players.
